ted again until it has
discharged its electricity by touching something.

"On making the experiment related by Otto von Guericke," he says, "which
consists in making a ball of sulphur rendered electrical to repel a down
feather, I perceived that the same effects were produced not only by the
tube, but by all electric bodies whatsoever, and I discovered that which
accounts for a great part of the irregularities and, if I may use the
term, of the caprices that seem to accompany most of the experiments on
electricity. This principle is that electric bodies attract all that
are not so, and repel them as soon as they are become electric by
the vicinity or contact of the electric body. Thus gold-leaf is first
attracted by the tube, and acquires an electricity by approaching it,
and of consequence is immediately repelled by it. Nor is it reattracted
while it retains its electric quality. But if while it is thus sustained
in the air it chance to light on some other body, it straightway loses
its electricity, and in consequence is reattracted by the tube, which,
after having given it a new electricity, repels it a second time, which
continues as long as the tube keeps its electricity. Upon applying
this principle to the various experiments of electricity, one will be
surprised at the number of obscure and puzzling facts that it clears up.
For Mr. Hauksbee's famous experiment of the glass globe, in which silk
threads are put, is a necessary consequence of it. When these threads
are arranged in the form of rays by the electricity of the sides of
the globe, if the finger be put near the outside of the globe the silk
threads within fly from it, as is well known, which happens only because
the finger or any other body applied near the glass globe is thereby
rendered electrical, and consequently repels the silk threads which are
endowed with the same quality. With a little reflection we may in the
same manner account for most of the other phenomena, and which seem
inexplicable without attending to this principle.

"Chance has thrown in my way another principle, more universal and
remarkable than the preceding one, and which throws a new light on the
subject of electricity. This principle is that there are two distinct
electricities, very different from each other, one of which I call
vitreous electricity and the other resinous electricity. The first is
that of glass, rock-crystal, precious stones, hair of animals, wool,
and many othe